View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by HAL - Université de Franche-Comté Palaeogeographical reconstructions of Lake Maliq (Kor¸caBasin, Albania) between 14,000 BP and 2000 BP Eric Fouache, St´ephaneDesruelles, Michel Magny, Amandine Bordon, C´ecile Oberweiler, C´ecile Coussot, Gilles Touchais, Petrika Lera, Anne-Marie L´ezine, Lionel Fadin, et al. To cite this version: Eric Fouache, St´ephane Desruelles, Michel Magny, Amandine Bordon, C´ecile Oberweiler, et al.. Palaeogeographical reconstructions of Lake Maliq (Kor¸ca Basin, Albania) be- tween 14,000 BP and 2000 BP. Journal of Archaeological Sciences, 2009, pp.525-535. <10.1016/j.jas.2009.10.017>. <hal-01076711> HAL Id: hal-01076711 https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01076711 Submitted on 23 Mar 2016 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L'archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destin´eeau d´ep^otet `ala diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publi´esou non, lished or not. The documents may come from ´emanant des ´etablissements d'enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche fran¸caisou ´etrangers,des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou priv´es. Distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License Palaeogeographical reconstructions of Lake Maliq (Korça Basin, Albania) between 14000 BP and 2000 BP Eric Fouache1, Stéphane Desruelles2, Michel Magny3, Amandine Bordon6, Cécile Oberweiler4, Céline Coussot8, Gilles Touchais4, Petrika Lera5, Anne-Marie Lézine6, Lionel Fadin7, Rébecca Roger9 1 EA 375 Gecko, Université Paris Ouest Nanterre la Défense, et UMR 8591 LGP, CNRS, Meudon, France. ([email protected]) 2 JE 2532 DSA, Université de Picardie - Jules Verne, Amiens, France. 3 UMR 6565 LCE, CNRS/Université de Besançon, France. 4 UMR 7041 ArScAn, CNRS/Université Paris 1, France. 5 Archaeological Institute, Tirana, and Archaeological Museum, Korça, Albania. 6 UMR 1572 LSCE, CEA/CNRS/UVSQ, France. 7 Ecole française d’Athènes, Greece. 8 Institut National des Recherches Archéologiques Préventives, Direction interrégionale Centre-Ile-de-France, Pantin, France. 9 Département de géographie, Université Paris 12 - Val de Marne, Créteil, France. Abstract Since the early 1990s, excavations of a protohistoric lakeside settlement in the Korça basin carried out by a French-Albanian archaeological team have induced geomorphological and palynological studies about the sedimentary records of Lake Maliq. These studies allow us to distinguish a series of centennial-scale high and low lake level events between 4200-4000 cal BP (2899-2637 BC/2843-2416 BC) and 2600 cal BP (822-671 BC), probably due to large-scale climate changes (in the Mediterranean basin). In addition, the sediment sequence also gives evidence of a millennial-scale trend of lake level rise. It appears to be an interplay between lake level rises and falls against tectonic subsidence of the basin allowing accommodation space for sediment deposition. The variations of the lake’s level and the lake’s surface area influenced the development and the abandonment of the nearby lakeside settlements (like the tell of Sovjan). In order to prepare an archaeological survey around the now dried up lake, we made a 3D model of the Holocene deposit from the lake including these lake level results, geomorphological mapping, excavation data, numerous core logs, AMS 14C dating and SRTM DEM data. The GIS model allowed us to propose four palaeogeographical reconstructions of the extension of Lake Maliq: around 14000 BP, during the Mesolithic (around 9000 BP - 8781-8542 BC), the Early/Middle Bronze Age transition (around 3800 BP - 2310-2042 BC) and the Iron Age (2600 BP - 822-671 BC). A map of the thickness of the sediments above potential archaeological layers is also proposed. Keywords: SRTM DEM, GIS, geoarchaeology, geomorphology, palaeoenvironment, Holocene, Albania 1. Introduction Since the early 1990s, archaeological excavations carried out in the Korça basin in Albania, and especially in Sovjan, a tell occupied from the Early Neolithic (7990 cal BP - 7060-6899 BC) until the Iron Age (2600 cal BP - 822-671 BC), have confirmed that people settled and developed agriculture and stock-breeding as early as the Early Neolithic (Lafe, 2005; Lera, 1990; Lera et al., 1996; Touchais et al., 2005). This is the so-called “Podgorie culture” (KOBAS, 2005; Korkuti, 1995; Prendi, 1990). The Northern area of the basin was occupied by Lake Maliq until drainage works at the end of 1950s. The lake’s surface area varied between a minimum of 40 km2 during periods of low level to a maximum of 80 km2 during high stands (Fouache et al., 2001). From the Early Neolithic to the Early Iron Age, and especially during the Early/Middle Bronze Age transition (around 3800 cal BP – 2310-2042 BC), the nearby lake shore was occupied by numerous settlements (Fig. 1) such as Maliq, the only “palaffitic” site studied in the basin (Prendi, 1966) and Sovjan, a lakeside site (Touchais et al., 2005). In order to ascertain more detailed information on other settlements and to establish a model of human settlements around Lake Maliq, the French-Albanian archaeological team undertook land surveys around the lake. As part of these surveys, we undertook reconstructions of Lake Maliq for specific periods; namely for 14000 cal BP, the Mesolithic (around 9000 cal BP - 8781-8542 BC), the Early/Middle Bronze Age transition (around 3800 cal BP - 2310-2042 BC) and the Iron Age (2600 cal BP - 822- 671 BC). These reconstructions were established using GIS and DEM including geological and new palaeoenvironnemental and archaeological data. In addition, these reconstructions allow us to discuss the influence of Holocene climatic variability on fluctuations in the palaeo-levels of Lake Maliq. 2. Regional setting 2.1. Geology and geomorphology Lake Maliq lies in the north-western part of the Korça basin, a graben valley, asymmetric in shape with a much higher scarp to the east (Fig. 2), located at 818 m a.s.l. and surrounded by highlands which reach 2028 m (Mali Thatë – Fig. 1). Limestone and ophiolite occupy the east of the basin, while molasses only outcrop to the west. While the nearby lakes of Prespa and Ohrid are permanent lakes with a karst regime (a landscape on limestone rock through which groundwater percolates, with submerged poljes), the Korça basin, outside the karst area, is drained by the river Devoll. Tectonic activity during the Quaternary (Tagari et al., 1993) isolated the Korça graben within its present geological borders. However, the neotectonic subsidence did not exceed 0.15 to 0.20 mm y-1 (Dufaure et al., 1999) in the centre of the plain and cannot alone account for the substantial variations in the lake level. 2.2. Climate and vegetation The local climate is characterized by annual rainfall averaging 800-1000 mm with maxima in winter (75-100 mm), and temperatures varying from 23°C to 25°C in July to 2°C to 5°C in January. The present-day vegetation is of the sub-Mediterranean type with an altitudinal distribution of the plant communities. The lower mountain slopes, up to about 1200 m a.s.l., are dominated by mixed deciduous forests with Carpinus orientalis, Acer monspessulanum, Pistacia terebinthus, Fraxinus ornus and Phillyrea latifolia. The upper slopes are covered by oak forests where Quercus trojana, Q. frainetto, Q. cerris may be locally associated with Pinus leucodermis, Juniperus excelsa, J. foetidissima and Aesculus hippocastanum. Beech woods, with Fagus moesiaca, Abies alba and Abies borisii-regis, are found above the oak forests, up to 1800 m a.s.l. Then, above approximately 1800 m a.s.l., sub-alpine moors and grasslands are present. 2.3. Holocene climatic variability Quantitative estimates from pollen data (Denèfle et al., 2000) of monthly temperature and precipitation changes (Bordon et al., 2009) suggest that, during the Oldest Dryas, from 16000 cal BP to 15100 cal BP, expansion of cold steppe dominated by Artemisia and Poaceae was related to low temperatures in both summer and winter, and annual precipitation totals lower than approximately 400 mm. Rainfall was 30 mm higher than today in average in summer and 60 mm lower in winter. From 15100 cal BP to 12800 cal BP, during the Bølling/Allerød, steppes were progressively replaced by temperate deciduous forests in relation to temperate climate conditions close to modern values. From 12800 cal BP to 11300 cal BP (Younger Dryas), a return of cold and dry conditions led to the wide expansion of steppes. Then, during the first part of the Holocene, from 11300 cal BP onward, remarkably stable environmental conditions prevailed in the Korça basin with vegetation dominated by elements characteristic of temperate deciduous forests, and climate conditions similar to the present day. A short-lived arid event punctuated this overall temperate period at 8200 cal BP (7445-7064 BC). The climate was characterized by a decrease in annual rainfall of 250 mm compared to the mean Holocene value and low temperatures responsible for the degradation of the forest at Maliq. From 1000 cal BP to the present, the climate reconstructions show large variability and major oscillations both in temperature and precipitation. Climate conditions during the Holocene at Maliq were not as cool and moist than those recorded elsewhere in the Mediterranean area (Cheddadi et al., 1997; Huntley and Prentice, 1988; Masson et al., 1999; Roberts et al., 2001; Sadori and Narcisi, 2001), probably in relation with the steep altitudinal gradient in the basin. The reconstructed temperatures record high amplitude changes, between –5°C and 10°C from 8200 cal BP (7445-7064 BC) to 1000 cal BP (ca 1000 AD) (Fig. 3), probably enhanced by the topography of the Korça basin.